After a brief break from the ‘black vs. white’ articles from readers, a couple of resident columnists decided to get into the action.  Khaya Dlanga's Blacks, you are lazy & Whites are more equal than others and David Moseley's White people, let’s march proved to be interesting reads and of course attracted plenty of attention.  Which columnist wouldn’t receive hundreds of reads and comments after including the adjectives “black” and “white” in their titles?

Before I get into what I really want to talk about, I would firstly like to apologise profusely for myself and on behalf of my parents who are benefactors of Apartheid.  They toiled for 30 years, 8 to 5 each day saving up enough money to provide my sister and me with a tertiary education that they never had. This wonderful gift called an education taught me, amongst other things, the difference between a serious piece of writing and satire.So I was very surprised to read Khaya’s and readers’ comments about David’s article. In the US and other 1st world countries, where freedom of speech is a right not a privilege, comedians such as Chris Rock thrive on making fun of his own race and other races. Anyway, I guess this is South Africa, the land of sensitivity and double standards.  Get called a “darkie” and you can sue, open a café called “Darkie Café” in Joburg and you will make big bucks! 

Now onto a few things that really bugged me when reading “Whites are more equal than others”:

Which “people”?

Khaya accuses me, in my personal capacity, “for causing the fatal blow” which I’m assuming is the establishment of the Apartheid government in the early 90’s.  I don’t think I was alive back then but even if I was, I don’t think that the white, general public of the day voted for the Apartheid laws, merely the government and its promises (sound familiar?).  Just like I don’t believe the German public voted for WWII and the extermination of the Jews when they voted in Hitler.  Maybe I’m wrong, but if I am then you are implying that black South Africans have voted for a lack of service delivery, a failed education system and mass fraud, corruption and theft by the government.  Khaya then ignores the fact that the white, general public voted to end Apartheid, in other words they were the “perpetrators” of the end of Apartheid.  What’s also confusing is that he quotes Steve Biko, “We believe that in our country there shall be no minority, there shall be no majority, just people”, then goes on to polarise the post 94’ “people” into two groups, victims and “perpetrators”.

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood”

“The polarisation mostly has to do with a lack of willingness for some people to understand the grievances each side faces.   Apart from the aircon fights between blacks and whites in South Africa, right now, there is no greater division between the races than the discussion of economic liberation.”
Khaya, let me enlighten you on the grievances and discussions that white people are having right now:

• Corruption, fraud, theft of taxpayers money
• Crime levels including boer genocide (see www.genocidewatch.com)
• Lack of service delivery which affects mostly black, poor South Africans
• Julius Malema and his incitement of hatred towards whites

Now tell me that you or the government give a flying duck about any of these grievances.  The government has proven over time that they do not care and you have proven with your columns that these issues are not on the top of your agenda.  It’s obvious that you direct your first sentence above at whites yet you are unwilling to understand the grievances of whites.  Yes, blacks have much to be aggrieved about but it’s not the ANC way to accept that it is also to blame, rather channel all the blame and hatred towards whites through Juju and others that think like him.

“The great fallacy”

Ok I will admit that a large majority of whites, at the time of Apartheid, did benefit.  Many are still benefitting today, but you have it wrong.  The biggest fallacy is the fallacy that stinking rich, greedy, corrupt fat cats in government struggled for their people.  Yes there were some that did, Nelson Mandela, Biko etc but most of the heroes who are in government today struggled for the loot.    If I hated blacks and I was in government this is what I would do:

• I would steal billions of rands in taxpayers money directed at housing, service delivery and schooling.  I’d pump the money into large luxury aircrafts and luxury estates for me and my band of thieves.
• I would deny the black majority a decent education.  I’d do this by putting in place an education system that is doomed to fail.
• I would give my friends and family the tenders whilst receiving kickbacks and I’d put them in charge of large mining companies, which paid out massive bonuses instead of paying its employees.
• To totally cripple service delivery I’d put incompetent cadres into power at municipal level in order to mismanagement budgets, wastefully expend and fail to deliver.

The reality is that the previously advantaged are shrinking rapidly in numbers, the poor majority is multiplying and the fat cats are riding the gravy train and getting fatter.  You are running out of excuses!

“Exceptions, not the norm”

These black billionaires and millionaires you speak of may be “exceptions” BUT the norm of these exceptions is that their surnames coincidently have Zuma, Mandela etc behind their names and are in most cases affiliated with the ANC.  The other norm is that the government needs to award tenders to black businesses.  Unfortunately they opt to award tenders to their already rich cadres instead of the small or medium black businesses without political connections.  Is this government carrying out it’s “responsibility to create a more entrepreneurial friendly society across all social levels”?

“Economic impact of inequality in societies”

It’s funny how you compare the most equal societies (Japan, Finland and Norway) to the most unequal societies (US, Portugal and UK) in terms of life expectancy, literacy, imprisonment and teen pregnancy.  Considering that your piece is about South Africa, why have you not compared our unequal society, with has had 17 years to improve, to the unequal societies of the US, Portugal and the UK in terms of those things?  Probably because of the fact that life expectancy was higher for the majority during Apartheid, crime was lower, imprisonment was lower.  But you chose to ignore those facts.

“White unemployment”

“White unemployment in South Africa only sits at 7% while black unemployment is well over 30%”.  I quite enjoyed your clever misuse of numbers there.  Whilst white unemployment may be 7% of the entire population, whites only make up about 10% of the population.  If not a single white person is employed, will you come out stating that white unemployment sits at 10%?  Very clever I must say!  Many of us know the impact of AA and many of us have been to the white squatter camps around the country.  Trying to create another fallacy that there aren’t hundreds of thousands of poor, white South Africans is not cool, it is lying.
 
Finally, anyone with an educated, objective mind would mention the term “wealth creation” when talking about economic freedom.  I’ve tried to find this term, the closest I got was “spreading the wealth”.   The difference between the two is as big as black and white.  If you read the comments and listen to the news, it seems that whites want wealth creation which means raising the average.  What is wrong with this concept?